Executive's promise to cut Quangos comes to nothing
29 November 2012
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“From time to time the Stormont Executive has boasted it will cull several of the Quangos operating in Northern Ireland (eg http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?id=2012-04-24.5.35).
“Not for the first time the reality is very different from the boasts of this failing government. Now, that we’ve had well over 5 years of restored devolution, I decided it was time to apply a truth test to the Executive’s claims. Thus, I tabled Assembly Questions to each department, asking how many Quangos they had in 2007, compared with now.
“Unsurprisingly, the answers expose that yet again behind this Executive hype and froth is systemic inaction.
“Since DOJ, which has 18 Quangos, only came into existence in 2010 I have excluded it from the calculation (save for 2 quangos which existed under DFP in 2007 but were transferred to DOJ upon its creation). The result of my Questions reveal that in 2007 when Sinn Fein/DUP came to power there were 95 Quangos, today instead of there being less, as promised, there is in fact one more, 96!
“Why does this Executive pretend to the public that it is taking action on such issues when patently it is not. OFMDFM itself has increased its number of Quangos from 9 in 2007 to 12 in 2012. Maybe they find the patronage of Quango appointments too useful to surrender.
“Each department now has the following number of Quangos:
OFMDFM 12; DFP 5 (+ 2 transferred to DOJ); DARD 5; DCAL 10; DETI 5; DE 14; DHSSPS 21; DEL 15; DOE 5; DRD 2.”
Note to editors:
These figures can be verified by examining the answers to the following Assembly Written Questions:
AQW 14908/11-15, AQW 14870/11-15, AQW 14869/11-15, AQW 14868/11-15, AQW 14817/11-15, AQW 14816/11-15, AQW 14815/11-15, AQW 14814/11-15, AQW 14813/11-15 and AQW 14782/11-15
